In October 2021, the UK government plans to ease travel rules for people who are fully vaccinated against Covid-19, merging its travel warnings into a single "red list" of nations deemed to present a high risk of infection and terminating its moderate-risk "amber list". As a first step, the UK will on 22 September remove several nations from the red list: Turkey, Pakistan, the Maldives, Egypt, Sri Lanka, Oman, Bangladesh and Kenya. "As global vaccination efforts continue to accelerate and more people gain protection from this dreadful disease, it is right that our rules and regulations keep pace," states UK transport secretary Grant Shapps. As of 4 October, fully vaccinated travellers will no longer have to take a Covid-19 test before flying to the UK from a non-red-list nation. From the end of October, such travellers will have the option of taking less expensive lateral flow tests, rather than PCR tests, on day two after arrival.

Australia's Regional Express has made it mandatory for all its frontline, customer-facing staff to be fully vaccinated against Covid-19 by 1 November. This includes employees working at check-in and all pilots and cabin crew across its regional and domestic networks, the operator says in a statement today. The move follows initial consultations with various unions, workplace health and safety representatives and staff. "These consultations will continue as the new policy is formulated," Rex says. Deputy chairman John Sharp states: "As we provide an essential service operating to regional centres and remote communities throughout Australia, it is incumbent upon us to do whatever we can to help those residents remain safe and healthy." Sharp says Rex will offer the small number of unvaccinated frontline staff non-customer-facing roles wherever available.

Shell will establish a biofuels facility at an existing refinery site in Rotterdam, which is scheduled to start production in 2024. The Dutch site will be among the largest biofuels facilities in Europe and produce 820,000t of low-carbon fuels per year using advanced technology developed by Shell, the energy provider says. Sustainable aviation fuel could make up more than half of the annual production capacity, Shell says. Shell Netherlands' president Director Marjan van Loon states: "The project will mean hundreds of millions of dollars of investment each year during construction, it will create hundreds of jobs and help to maintain the facility’s competitiveness for years to come." The new facility will help Shell to meet its own target of becoming a net-zero emissions energy business by 2050, the company says. The facility is expected to use technology to capture carbon emissions from manufacturing processes and store them in an empty gas field beneath the North Sea through a project called Porthos. A final investment decision for Porthos is expected next year, Shell says. Shell notes that it is transforming refineries into five energy and chemicals parks as part of a plan to reduce production of traditional fuels 55% by 2030. The Energy and Chemicals Park Rotterdam is the second park to be announced, following the launch of a site in Germany in July.